A bicycle rider who carries a sportboard loosely while riding his bicycle engages in a rather risky practice. Wind currents, irregularities in the road surface, and sudden changes in velocity or direction of the bicycle are only some situations which cause the board to shift and exert forces that can decontrol the bicycle. Even if the rider quickly dumps the board, the dangers still may not be averted. The board might instead become an obstacle or barrier, or project into the spokes, or control may be so far lost that it cannot be regained in time. Damage to the board and injury to the rider can frequently be expected.
Still the rider often has no other practical way to get to the beach or wherever else he might wish to use the board, and he accepts the risks. Often enough he will regard these as tame compared to those of the board sport itself.
Bicycle racks have in fact been devised to carry sport boards. They have not attained substantial acceptance, largely because they do not work well or are commercially impractical. Existing racks known to the instant inventor do not sufficiently stabilize the board relative to the bicycle frame. In fact they frequently permit the board to tilt forwardly and strike the rider upon a sudden stop or an abrupt change in direction such as passing over a curb.
Also they are not adaptable to a range of bicycle frame sizes. As a result one rack will properly fit only one size of one frame configuration. Unless the manufacturer makes and the retailer stocks a specific rack for each frame size and configuration the same rack will make only a compromise fit with another frame size or configuration.
It addition, the rider may own different boards of different sizes. The rack should be adaptable to carry a plurality of sizes with little effort to accommodate the change in size of the board to be carried.
This invention provides a rack of elegantly simple configuration which can readily solve one or more of the above problems, depending on the number of features it is to include.